A mime with a law degree and an Egyptian expert on TS Elliot are among the teachers with mundane backgrounds at the city's controversial Arabic school.
Critics of the Khalil Gibran International Academy feared the new Brooklyn school would become an Islamic extremist indoctrination center. But a review of the professional work histories of the staff reveals little to suggest anything so nefarious.
Take, for example, the school's English-as-a-second-language teacher. The woman, a mother of two grown children, has a 1983 law degree from Brooklyn College and a Master's in education from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
Indeed, the only thing that stands out is that she owned up on her résumé to working as a mime from 1971 to 1973.
The Department of Education declined to release the identities of the staff because of threatened legal action from the teachers union, a spokeswoman said. But it provided The Post with redacted copies of cover letters and résumés seeking employment with the school.
The school's two staffers with Mideast roots also show little to suggest extremism.
The humanities teacher professes a love for TS Eliot in his or her résumé. The 1997 graduate of Ain Shams University in Cairo did a thesis on "religious drama" in the poet's work.
The teacher then received the equivalent of a Master's in education from Alexandria University in Egypt.
The school's other Arabic speaker teaches math, and is an immigrant from an unspecified Middle Eastern country. This instructor, who has a Master's from Brooklyn College, served on the planning committee of the academy with Debbie Almontaser, the first principal, who resigned amid a wave of criticism for defending the use of the word "intifada" on a T-shirt.
cbennett@nypost.com